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Geotechnical
engineering is one of the
civil engineering branches in which soil mechanics, rock mechanics and
engineering geology are its related fields. The main fields of geotechnical
engineering with a special view to earthquake engineering are as follows:
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Identification of site conditions for
modeling of soil layers and site response analysis
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Investigation of geotechnical hazards
including evaluation of liquefaction and landslide potential
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Evaluation of bearing capacity, settlement,
and deformations of shallow and deep foundations and also
soil-foundation-structure interactions
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Evaluation of lateral earth pressure and
retaining walls behavior
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Behavior evaluation of embankment dams
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Stability of underground excavations,
tunnels and caverns
In recent years due to daily growing
lifelines and heavy industries and also their probable damages in earthquake
prone areas, geotechnical earthquake engineering has been developed much
rapidly. Now, design of structures is recommended to be done with a special
view to geotechnical earthquake engineering aspects. In this regard,
geotechnical research center of IIEES has been established for fulfillment
of the following programs:
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Comprehensive analytical, experimental, in
situ and instrumental studies in different fields including liquefaction,
landslide, site effects, soil-structure interaction, geotechnical zonation and
micro-zonation;
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Theoretical studies in many fields such as
modeling, mechanics of porous medias and soil structures behavior for innovation
and development in analytical and designing methods of soil mechanics and
foundation engineering with an emphasis on dynamic loading.
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Establishment, development and improvement
of laboratory and in situ equipment and measuring instruments;
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Manufacturing laboratory and in situ
equipment and instruments in related fields;
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Cooperation with industry, executive
organizations and engineering societies through consulting services;
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Scientific-research and technological
cooperation with research and educational centers, institutes and other internal
and international organizations.
In order to fulfill the above plans,
geotechnical research center has organized its activities in four groups as:
The recent contributions and
accomplishments in Geotechnic achievement activities are:
Geotechnic:
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Expansion of the soil dynamic testing
facilities.
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Development of site effect microzonation
map of Tehran by using analytical, experimental and microtremor methods. The map
includes natural site period, dynamic site period, PGA distribution and design
spectrum.
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Comprehensive study on the liquefaction
potential assessment of Tehran alluvium has been done and based on historical
data, geological, geomorphological and hydrogeological condition,
the preliminary liquefaction potential microzonation map has been prepared.
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Extending site effect, liquefaction and
landslide microzonation studies to cover all part of Tehran.
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Geotechnical hazard microzonation of
various provinces and industrial cities.
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Quantification of topographical effects on
free field motions, using numerical and experimental methods.
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Study on monotonic and cyclic behavior of
compacted composite clays.
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Ambient and forced vibration studies on two
embankment dams.
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Providing guideline for seismic design of
soil structures.
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